TWO bingo buddies, nicknamed The Fat Birds, have shrunk 11 dress sizes between them as part of their mission to run the London marathon.

Amanda Townsend and Karen Brayshaw, neighbours in Siddow Avenue, Clitheroe, are six months into their gruelling year-long training programme and have already shed hundreds of pounds to raise thousands for charity.

The pair put their success down to support from friends, family and colleagues and have already raised £2,000 for Marie Curie Cancer Care - but need to double it to for their marathon places in April.

Amanda, 33, has shrunk from a size 28 to a size 20 and trimmed inches galore from her curves.

She said: "It started when I was watching the London marathon on TV in April. I got a call from Karen. She said 'We are running it next year'. I was on my third bag of crisps and my second bottle of WKD and I thought 'Yeah. right'.

"But she rang me the next day and told me we had an appointment at a gym. I was just short of 24 stone. I was devastated. We started walking every other night. Six months on, I've lost five stone and Karen is down to a size 14. We're at the gym at 6am every other morning.

"I feel fantastic, I've even thrown away my big Bridget Jones knickers which I swore I'd wear forever. Now I buy thongs, it's great.

"We feel like celebrities - we can be walking in Clitheroe on a drizzly evening and a car will go past and beep its horn. That beep can keep us going for another week."

Karen, 40, who works for Ribble Valley Community Transport, has given up a 20-a-day cigarette habit.

She said: "I turned 40 and I realised I wanted to turn my life around.

"Amanda's 10-year-old daughter, Lisa, and my 13-year-old, Adam, have been brilliant in spurring us on. Whenever we go out walking they come, too. They shout encouragement and make us run between lamp posts."